Friday, July 27, 2007

Wow. The C'Dude FMF Ride was flipping AWESOME but I am totally wiped out this morning. I showed up to the secret meeting place around 8:40 or so, and started unpacking my bike from the back of my car, and re-assembling it. A few other people were doing the same. After I had things put together, I introduced myself and we hung out, waiting for others to arrive. All in all, there were six crazy cyclists ready for a ride through the humid air of a summer night.

As we rolled off, one cyclist encountered a flat tire right away, before we could even leave the parking lot. It was caused by an old slice in his tire. About 10 minutes later, the tire had been booted and the hole had been patched. Fortunately, after this, there were no other malfunctions.

In order to get through the whole ride while still having a headlight left by the time I got done, I used the trusty Blackburn Quadrant LED light when we were in well-lit areas, conserving the 2.5 hours of run-time that my NiteRider has for use out in the boonies, and we were out in the boonies for quite a while. Never too far from civilization, but we spent a lot of time on roads that are sparsely populated and rarely traveled at night.

We only stopped for refreshments one time, at Shell in Stilwell, KS. I was munching away on a Butterfinger bar when all of a sudden, something didn't feel quite right. One of the two caps for my front teeth had popped off! The Butterfinger just finished it off -- I'd noticed it felt kind of odd after eating corn on the cob a few days ago. That's probably what weakened it. So, I have a fang again. I'm going to look into my options for getting the tooth fixed.

We strolled back up Metcalf into Overland Park and wrapped up the ride a little after midnight. The total was about 37 miles. As expected, I got dropped on some of the bigger hills, but I was never too far behind and I was able to catch back up.

After grabbing some real food and taking some to my wife at work, then getting home and taking a shower, it was about 1:30 AM. I passed out. My wife woke me up at about 4:50 when she got home and I had a serious case of sleep inertia. I just couldn't get moving. My legs feel fine, but I spent too much energy yesterday and didn't get nearly enough recovery. I rode my mountain bike to a bus stop this morning. Here I am.

As if it wasn't cool enough to meet Warren and C'Dude this month, it sounds like I might grab some lunch with Jason today as well, since he works just around the corner from my office... but not for long.

Ugh. Where's my coffee?! This is going to be a very long day.

Random Tumage:DeNuit - All That Mattered (Cover of "Love You Down")Bruce Hornsby - The way it is

Well, I think it's understandable that you're exhausted. That's a lot of riding, and hardly any sleep. I used to be able to function on almost no sleep, but I guess I wore my body out that way, because now I can't function at all without a good night's sleep.

I kind of want to do some night road riding after reading this. I have done mountain biking at night, and that sure is a trip.

RE: your physical abilities changing - It's fairly well known in body building that the body makes many jumps, platues and recessions while built up. One of the keys to building up strength is the recovery times between hard workout sessions. You may do well to ride every other day, and bus the rest for a couple/few weeks. Say ride MWF and bus Tu&Th. That would give your body time to (re)build your muscles, esp. from your Baltimore death slog. Also, the old saw of carbs before the workout and protein after may actually be backward.

Actually, at ~30 Miles per day and if I get a good night's rest, Baltimore is just a hill, not a slog these days. It can be conquered in the lowest gear on the second chainring of my road bike without strenuous leg effort. Yes, it will raise my BPM. Yes, I'll sweat. No, I won't be decimated by the time I get to the top.

I have been meaning to start using my heart rate monitor more. At least in the mornings. A resting heart rate that's higher than average usually means you didn't recover fully and should take it easy or flat out take a rest day.

Currently, to determine if I'm over-training or not, I usually use my leg feel first thing in the morning and right at the beginning of each ride, as well as assessing my level of fatigue directly after each ride. This is done on both directions of my commute. It doesn't necessarily mean I'll take a rest day. I ride to work, darnit!!! But, it definitely plays a major role in what kind of pace I use, and to an extent, the route I take to get to and from work.

Thanks for bringing up training, though. You kind of put a bug in my ear to remind me that I do have a heart rate monitor that I could be using. Perhaps I'll begin plotting my RHR in the mornings, too and perhaps actually use it on my bike. Now, more than ever, I am putting quite a few miles on.

I keep telling myself that I am NOT a so-called "serious" or "avid" cyclist, but a "fun" cyclist that takes his fun pretty seriously. It is about time to get a little more serious about watching my progress as well as my fun, though. Maybe August's goal will simply be to see how many days I can remember to check my resting heart rate. HAHA!

I know where the watch/reciever is for my HRM... Now, where'd I put that damned heart rate transmitter?!

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